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This is Mamu and she is a 2-year-old female
at
MWC. The last photo, below, of her on top of
the enclosure was my first sighting of any
orangutan at the center. It was an extremely
moving moment to see this beautiful ape
freely roaming the center. I have seen
plenty of orangutans in zoos I have visited,
but nothing compared to seeing an orangutan
outside of an enclosure.
Mamu was born at MWC and has lived there for
2 years now. Her mother,
Ciam (pronounced
Cham), is also at the center. Ciam was
released but, due to an incident that I will
explain shortly, she had to be returned to
her enclosure. The head keepers believe that
while she was released she became pregnant
with Mamu.
Mamu never strays far from her mother. She
is so small that she can squeeze through the
bars of the enclosures. In that last
picture below, that is actually her enclosure that
she is climbing on top of. Ciam is too big
to squeeze through the bars, so you can
periodically see her long arms reaching
through the top trying to pull Mamu back in.
(Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll
see Ciam's hands outside of the enclosure.)
A little known fact is that if an orangutan
can get his or her head through or between
something, in Mamu's case enclosure bars,
their body will easily follow. Their heads
are actually the biggest, hardest part of
their bodies.
Mamu is a fortunate orangutan to still be
with her mother. The vast majority of
infants and juveniles at rehabilitation
centers do not have mothers and are
considered orphans. Young orangutans have
higher release success rates if they are
raised by their real mothers or surrogate
mothers. It is easier to have a more
experienced orangutan teach the infants and
juveniles rather than to have humans
teaching them. |
